The Salvation of Vengeance (Wanted Men #2) (26 page)

“Like Mom,” Caleb offered tightly. His cell went off, and he went out to the hall to answer it.

First her mother had left her, Vincente thought—something devastating to a young girl. Then her father. Then Eva, when she’d left Seattle to come to Columbia. And, last, Caleb, when he’d moved to New York just this past year, right when she’d needed him most. They’d all left her.

He cursed and stomped over to the mini-fridge in the corner of the sitting area and came back with a bottle of water. He didn’t like how it felt having Eva’s accusing eyes on him. Not that he met them. He ignored her and sat, his hip touching Nika’s as he cracked the lid and put the bottle on the nightstand for when she woke.

He reached out and brushed a wisp of hair off Nika’s high cheekbone. “Rest well, babe,” he murmured to her without thinking. “I’m gonna try to fix this up for you tonight. Put an end to it once and for all.” He cupped her cheek, which had only a shadow of a bruise left. “This will end, and you’re going to move on.” He wished that he could move on with her. “Trust me on that, okay?”

“Why are you being nice to her now?”

Vincente frowned and looked over at Eva. Then he got it. Nika had spilled about what had gone down this morning.
Shit.
“I try always to be nice to her.”

More emotion, if that were possible, entered a pair of blue eyes identical to Vasily’s. Eva’s were still glittering with moisture. “Is that so? From what I heard, you weren’t very nice earlier today. Why would you lead her on that way, Vincente?” she asked coldly, gaze darting to the door. “After what she’s been through, I think what you did was cruel.”

She was pissed. Yet she was keeping this between the three of them. He appreciated that.

“I didn’t mean to lead her on,” he grumbled. He could hear the resentment in his tone but couldn’t curb it. He just didn’t talk about shit like this. With anyone, let alone his best friend’s fucking wife. “What happened between us was—”
Incredible. Beautiful. Amazing.
“Well, it shouldn’t have happened. We’re—”

“Why?”

“Pardon?”

Eva glanced at the door again and then back to him. “Why shouldn’t it have happened?”

His answer was honest. “Because she deserves better than anything I can give her.”

The aggression went out of Eva as if a dam had broken, and her brow wrinkled in that way that showed someone was
awww
ing in her head. “Oh, Vincente. I don’t believe that. We actually think you’re pretty wonderful.” She smiled. “Sorry. I know you guys don’t like to hear that sort of thing, but it’s true. Nika likes you.”

He ground his molars and wished he was anywhere but here. “No, she doesn’t. She’s just grateful that I’m giving her a hand dealing with Nollan. Or trying to.”

“Oh, so she’s going to go off and make out with Alek next? And then Quan and Gabriel? Oh, and let’s not forget Maksim. She might even go so far as to have sex with him so he understands the gratitude she feels for taking so much time out of his busy schedule to tap some keys on a computer.”

“Are you trying to piss me off here, squirt?” he ground out, wanting to rage at the images she’d put into his head.

“No,” Eva replied patiently. “I’m trying to show you how silly you’re being. She didn’t do whatever it was you guys did together this morning because she’s
grateful
to you. She did it because she’s attracted to you. And for someone who has been through what she’s been through, you should be damn flattered that she’s able to feel that way about you at all.”

Vincente had to struggle not to let that blow up his chest. Nika was attracted to him. She’d wanted him this morning. She’d responded to him—

He shook the thoughts out of his head. “She still deserves better.”

“So, you don’t like her?” Eva pressed.

And he’d had it. He leaned in with a jerk, Nika’s prone body between them, and looked Vasily’s kid right in the eye. “What I feel for this woman is my personal business, and I’m going to keep it that way no matter what you ask me. Are we clear?”

A slow, lovely smile lit Eva’s face. “Yes, Vincente. You’ve made what you feel for my friend
very
clear.”

Fuck.
She was
so
her father’s daughter.

Gabriel finally showed up—too late in Vincente’s estimation—Tegan right on his heels. The boss came around the bed to sit behind his wife, wrapping a comforting arm around her and pulling her back against him.

“Make some room, Vin,” Tegan ordered, shooing him away with her hands.

He stood but didn’t move away, watching as she did a basic ABCs. She yanked a stethoscope out of her NYU hoodie pocket and plugged the ends into her ears.

“You carry that everywhere you go?” he muttered.

“Sure. It gets me laid,” Tegan replied cattily. “Now shush.” She put the bell to Nika’s chest and listened for a tense twenty seconds.

Pulling the plugs out of her ears, she sat back with a sigh. “Stress is such a beotch. This poor little thing. You guys don’t know what she’s been through until you see her X-rays.” She shook her head angrily, her hand resting where Nika’s ribs would be under the blanket.

Vincente spun on his heel and headed for the door without a word. Caleb followed as he went down the hall. If Gabriel made it downstairs by the time they reached his truck, he could come with; if not, they’d leave anyway.

He had someone to kill.

A tickle on her arm brought Nika back. Opening her eyes, she blinked a few times until she was able to focus on Eva’s black hair hanging like a glossy curtain, hiding her face from view.

“Eva?” she croaked.

Her best friend’s head whipped up and she smiled. “Hey.” The smile disappeared as she shouted, “Tegan!” before looking back, smile reappearing. A nice, bright fake one.

Nika went to sit up but was held down by Eva’s hand on her shoulder.

“Just wait.”

“Why? I’m fine,” she lied as the blonde doctor appeared from a doorway on the right. “What happened?”

“Good morning,” Tegan trilled in a singsong voice, smiling a toothpaste-commercial smile as she sat practically in Nika’s lap on the massive bed she just now noticed she was lying in.

“Morning . . . ?” She watched Eva get to her feet and stand there looking nervous, which made
her
nervous. How could it be morning when she didn’t even remember going to bed?

“You remember Tegan?” Eva said. “And you’ve only been out about five minutes.”

Out?
“Oh. Uh, yes. Hi, Tegan.” Nika looked at the familiar blonde and tried to smile. She managed, only because she remembered Vincente saying Tegan wasn’t his girlfriend. “Sorry, I—”

“Fainted. We know, sweetie,” the doctor interrupted. “Does anything hurt? Bright light,” she added just as a beam nailed Nika in the eyes, first one and then the other.

“No. Nothing.” Except everything.

“Hmm.” The doctor put two fingers over Nika’s wrist and kept time with her watch. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

Nika waded through the swamp that was her mind and tried to think around the pounding in her temples. She’d taken a taxi . . . she and Eva had talked . . . they’d all ended up in the kitchen—

She sat up so fast that Tegan squeaked in surprise. “Where are they, Eva? Did they go out?”

Eva came back and sat on the pillow like a lithe monkey, knees tucked up under her chin. “Yes, of course they did. They’ll be fine, Nika,” she soothed in a calming voice as she petted her hair.

But what if they weren’t fine? What if Kevin was waiting in the shadows or something? What if he had a gun? Nika put her head into her hands, hating how helpless she felt. “Eva. If anything happens—”

“Nothing is going to happen. Okay? Now, please, just shut up and relax. You’re starting to freak me out.” She got up off the bed and started pacing, hand rubbing her stomach as if she felt sick.
The little liar is shitting her pants
, Nika realized.
Great.
“Come on—both of you. We’re going downstairs. I want some olives.” Eva stalked from the room.

“What a little Miss Bossy Pants,” Tegan muttered, holding her hand out for Nika. “No wonder Gabriel is so goo-goo over her. Can you image her in bed? Touch there. Not there.
There.
Harder. Faster. Blah, blah, blah,
boom
.”

Nika couldn’t help but smile as she took the doctor’s hand. “I think I like your bedside manner.”

“I know, right?” Tegan winked as she led her out of the room.

Before they reached the door, Nika spotted a familiar leather duster lying across the corner of the sofa and faltered. “Whose bedroom is this?”

“Vincente’s.”

Her pulse jumped, and she turned back to the bed she’d just been in. Vincente slept there every night, she thought, her body reacting. She looked around at the rest of the room. It reminded her of a self-contained hotel suite for some reason. A rather depressing grayscale winter landscape hung on one wall.
Sheesh
, she thought with a frown; the atmosphere in here was cold. Expensive furnishings but lifeless. Until she leaned over to peek in the closet. Now
there
was the warmth she’d been searching for, in the form of worn jeans on hangers, a few distressed leather dusters, an array of Vincente-style T-shirts, and a load of boots like the ones Caleb wore lining the wall on the floor. Maybe she just liked it better in there because it reflected who Vincente was to her.

Her rising temperature cooled substantially when she remembered his humiliating rejection that morning, and she finally turned and followed Tegan out. Why had she been brought to his room? Had
he
brought her there, or had someone else?

They reached the kitchen just as Eva was twisting the lid off a large jar. She scooped a ladle—an actual soup ladle—of green olives into a bowl before placing the container back in the double-door refrigerator. As she popped two into her mouth, Tegan spoke.

“I’m all for wallowing in anxiety, but anyone interested in one hell of a distraction?”

Nika had gone over to steal a tangy treat from the bowl clutched against Eva’s chest, and they turned to look at the MD. “Yes,” they said together.

Tegan sailed across the room and grabbed a small black case off the counter. She waved for them to follow her as she left. “Tell me again what your problem is,” she called to Eva over her shoulder as she headed down the hallway.

Eva quickly stuffed four olives into her mouth and then placed the bowl on the counter. She looked at Nika, pursing her lips. “She could at least sound like she cares,” she muttered.

“Heard that,” Tegan sang as they followed her. “Now start talking, Moretti.”

Pride parted the gloomy clouds on Eva’s face at the sound of her new name. “I’ve been getting headaches for a couple of weeks now. They just come out of nowhere, and when they go I’m left feeling nauseous and a little shaky.”

Nika looked at her as they walked. “You never told me that.”

They all entered the large bathroom off the foyer and gathered around as Tegan withdrew a few things from her bag. “Have you mentioned this to Gabriel?”

Eva laughed. “Uh, no. He’s a little controlling, in case you’ve forgotten who we’re talking about,” she said wryly. “He’d never let me out of bed if he thought I wasn’t feeling well.”

“He’s been keeping you on the couch watching ‘a show he’s wanted to see’ a lot lately, huh? Sitting out on the deck, you snuggled in his lap? Lazing in bed, wrapped all over you, till noon?”

Eva’s cheeks flamed. “Well, yes, yes, and yes. How do—”

“He knows.” The confidence in Tegan’s tone was indisputable. Nika started to get nervous, and she shelved her own problems for the moment. “Gabriel is not a sedentary person,” Tegan added. “So that must mean”—she pointed at Eva like a
Price Is Right
model—“you’re the cause. What? You thought your man was lazy?”

“No!” The denial was instant, vehement and fierce, and Nika had to smile as defense of her husband brought out that little beast Eva kept hidden. “How dare you say something like that, Tegan? Gabriel is the most—”

“Look, I’m just—”

“I wasn’t finished!”

Tegan reared back at the authority that rang in Eva’s voice and shut her mouth immediately. Nika smirked.

“Gabriel is
not
lazy. And I never thought for one minute that he was. He’s caring and loving and affectionate, and I just thought he wanted to spend time with me, the way I want to spend time with him. I didn’t . . . realize . . . Is he letting his responsibilities slide? Neglecting his duties at TarMor? He can’t be, because we work on stuff all the time. Is he not dealing with things within the family that need his attention? Just so that . . .” A sob escaped, and Nika moved in to hug her.

Tegan beat her there.

“Hey,” the doctor cooed, gathering Eva into her arms as if she’d been a mother for fifty years. The tenderness of her actions, and the sincere remorse on her face, had Nika fighting a few stupid tears of her own. “I never meant to imply you were holding him back or that he was doing something he didn’t want to do. Shit. If he could throw in the towel on every responsibility he has so he could spend every waking moment in your presence, you know damn well he’d do it. He loves you like nothing I’ve ever seen before, Moretti. Which I don’t mind admitting is sometimes sickening to watch.” She pushed Eva an arm’s length away. “Forgive me?”